Pasta and chickpeas is a popular dish all over Italy, says Gennaro Contaldo.
Serves four people
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Ingredients
- 200g dried chickpeas
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 small carrots, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, left whole and squashed
- 100g fennel bulb, finely chopped
- 20g wild fennel fronds, roughly chopped (optional)
- thinly pared rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 1.8 litres water
- 200g tagliatelle, broken into little pieces
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
- parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 unwaxed lemon, zested then quartered
Method
- Place the chickpeas in plenty of cold water with the bicarbonate of soda (this softens the chickpeas and speeds up cooking time) and soak overnight.
- The next day, heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the carrots, garlic and fennel bulb and sweat for 2-3 minutes. Drain the chickpeas and stir in the wild fennel (if using) and lemon rind. Add the water, 1 unwaxed lemon, zested then quartered bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 2 hours until the chickpeas are cooked.
- When cooked, season to taste, increase the heat, add the pasta – you may need a little more boiling water – and cook until the pasta is al dente.
- Serve with parmesan, freshly grated lemon zest and the lemon quarters for squeezing.
Taken from Gennaro’s Limoni: Vibrant Italian Recipes Celebrating the Lemon by Gennaro Contaldo, available from The Week Bookshop for £20.
-
9 products to jazz up your letters and cardsThe Week Recommends Get the write stuff
-
AI surgical tools might be injuring patientsUnder the Radar More than 1,300 AI-assisted medical devices have FDA approval
-
‘Zero trimester’ influencers believe a healthy pregnancy is a choiceThe Explainer Is prepping during the preconception period the answer for hopeful couples?
-
Arcadia: Tom Stoppard’s ‘masterpiece’ makes a ‘triumphant’ returnThe Week Recommends Carrie Cracknell’s revival at the Old Vic ‘grips like a thriller’
-
My Father’s Shadow: a ‘magically nimble’ love letter to LagosThe Week Recommends Akinola Davies Jr’s touching and ‘tender’ tale of two brothers in 1990s Nigeria
-
Send Help: Sam Raimi’s ‘compelling’ plane-crash survival thrillerThe Week Recommends Rachel McAdams stars as an office worker who gets stranded on a desert island with her boss
-
Book reviews: ‘Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind’ and ‘Football’Feature A right-wing pundit’s transformations and a closer look at one of America’s favorite sports
-
One great cookbook: Joshua McFadden’s ‘Six Seasons of Pasta’the week recommends The pasta you know and love. But ever so much better.
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
